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Cerkno museum

Cerkno museum - presentation

Who's to blame for this year's mild winter? Pust!

The Cerkno region is a small link in the chain of Slovenia's prealpine foothills. Though removed from large centers and events, it nevertheless takes pride in a history lasting several thousand years. The Cerkno Museum is the only institution that is integrally studying the rich heritage of this region. With its collections, exhibitions and other activities, the Museum is enabling visitors to recognize the cultural identity of the Cerkno region. By continuously developing and broadening its activities, the museum is significantly co-creating the cultural happenings in this area.

Alongside the occasional exhibitions organized by the Museum on the basis of annual work programmes, two permanent exhibitions are presently on display. The Cerkno Region Through the Centuries offers (with the exception of archaeological periods) an integral presentation of the historical development of the Cerkno region. Although the area had already been settled in prehistoric times, the Cerkno region began to record »real« history in the second half of the 11th century, when certain place names were first mentioned in written sources. The exhibition presents the region's development under various state formations that ruled the area up to the end of the 20th century. The photographs, documents and specimens present selected segments of the administrative, economic and cultural life of the region.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the revival of the Cerkljanska Laufarija, a new permanent exhibition entitled PUST IS TO BLAME! – A Story about the Cerkno Laufarija was opened in the Cerkno Museum in 2006. The Cerkno laufars are among the most famous carnival masks in Slovenia. A special feature of these carnival figures are their wooden masks called »larfa«, which are cut from the wood of the linden tree. Their strong resemblance to humans is not typical of any other region in Slovenia. On the basis of collected documentary materials and photographs, the Museum has prepared a reconstruction of costumes and requisites for all 25 figures that today form part of the laufarija family. The history of this custom and the ceremony itself are presented in exhibited photographs and other written records.